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Aviation History
1916
1916 - 1156.PDF
r/itcHT DECEMBER 21, 1916. AIRCRAFT WORK AT THE FRONT. OFFICIAL INFORMATION. British. General Headquarters, December 12th, 10.12 p.m. " Yesterday three enemy aeroplanes were accounted for, one of which fell inside our lines. One of our machines is missing." t War Office, December 13th. " Salonica.—On the Struma front our aircraft reconnais sances continue." Admiralty, December 15th. " On the 14th inst. a squadron Of naval aeroplanes carried out a bombardment of Kuleli-Burgas Bridge, south of Adrianople. A great weight of bombs was dropped and extensive damage is believed to have been done." Admiralty, December 16th. " On the 15th inst. an attack was carried out by a squadron of naval aeroplanes upon Razlovoi, 60 kiloms. (37J miles), east of Ishtip, Serbia. " A large number of bombs were dropped with effect, many hits being observed." War Office, December 16th. " Mesopotamia.—During the night of the 14th-15th our aeroplanes, flying by moonlight, successfully attacked the pontoon bridges on the Tigris, which the enemy had removed from their sites and was towing up-stream. The materiel was broken up and scattered." War Office, December 18th. " Salonica.—Our aeroplanes dropped bombs on Tumba Station and inflicted damage on some enemy transport on the Ghevgeli-Chernitsa Road." French. Paris, December 12th. " Salonica.—One enemy aerplane was brought down on the Struma front. Our air service bombarded the enemy cantonments in the region of Doiran and the Vardar Valley." Paris, December 13th. " Salonica.—A German aeroplane was destroyed by the fire of our artillery near Bouvaucourt. " An enemy aeroplane, compelled to come down, was captured by an Italian detachment. The twoofficers manning the machine were taken prisoners." Paris, December i$th. "In spite of the unfavourable weather, the air service played a brilliant part in the fighting [at Verdun]." " Salonica.—The Allied air service displayed great activity. One enemy machine was brought down south of Petrik." Russian. Petrograd, December 14th. " Our aeroplanes successfully dropped bombs on the Plouiov Station on the Tarnopol-Zolotchev Railway, and on a transport near the village Nouchtche, which is north-east of this railway." E H AIR WORK IN THE following pen-picture of the work of our flying officers in Mesopotamia was sent by Mr. Edmund Candler from Aral Village, Mesopotamia, on October 28th :— " Up in the air one loses the mirage. Immediately you leave the ground things cease to be blurred. The dancing images and amorphous shapes of a level horizon become infantry, or sheep, or camels. The eye in the air is nowhere so essential as in the desert, where all objects conspire in illusion. " I heard a subaltern observer describing an action early in the campaign when he was in the only machine available at that particular time and place, and he had no wireless. The whole thing seemed so simple and easy from his perch in the air. He could see our own cavalry and the enemy's approaching each other in the haze, neither having any idea of the other's existence. He felt that he could turn the tide of battle, or rather turn an inconclusive engagement into a big coup, if only he could make himself heard. But down below everything was obscured in mirage, and so we may have missed a chance. " But that was in an early phase of the show. We have had time to make good in the air since then in man-power, machine-power, staff, and material. " Our ascendancy in the air is as complete here as in France. The closest touch has been established between artillery commanders and pilots and observers, with damaging Petrograd, December 15th. " Yesterday our aeroplanes fought three aerial action? in the region of Zalovce, Luchce, and Mlynovce, and on each occasidn drove back the enemy to his own lines." Petrograd, December 16th. " In the Black Sea, in order to destroy the flour mills which are supptying the Bulgarian Army, our warships on December 13th successfully bombarded the port of Baltchik. They were unsuccessfully bombarded by the enemy's shore batteries and attacked by his hydroplanes and submarines." Petrograd, December 18th. " In the Boldury region an enemy captive balloon was carried by the wind behind our positions. We are without information as to its descent." Italian. Rome, December 13th. " On the Carso one of our aeroplanes attacked an enemy kite balloon, which fell in flames near Ternovizza (Ternwicaj, north-east of Nabresina." Serbian. Salonica, December 15th. " Yesterday was also marked by great aerial activity on both sides." Salonica, December 16th • " Yesterday (December 15 th) there was artillery fire on both sides without any infantry action, and great aero nautic activity." German. Berlin, December 18th. " Enemy columns retreating to Braila were attacked with visible effect by our air squadrons." Austrian. Vienna, December 14th. " Austro-Hungarian airmen shot down an enemy battle aeroplane over Commanesci. The machine turned upside down and crashed into a wood." Bulgarian. Sofia, December 12th. " Hostile aerial activity at Porto Lagos was without result." Sofia, December 14th. " There was lively activity on the part of enemy airmen over our positions and in our rear. Several of our aeroplanes successfully dropped bombs on the British bivouacs and depdts near Tchaizaza." Turkish. Constantinople, December iSlh. " We destroyed the enemy aeroplane which had been brought down by our fire, as announced in our yesterday's conununiqui." ' MESOPOTAMIA. effect to the enemy's guns. Air photography, as a means of charting a hostile and unsurveyed country, has been brought to a scientific finish. Hangars have reduced the wastage of our machines, which in the earlier days warped and shrank in the alternate rain and sun. By constant bombing raids, especially at night, we have established an aggressive offensive. The result of fights in the air has been that a week often passes without a sight of a hostile aeroplane. " Low flying, no easy thing in the dark, has become the rule of late. In a raid at Shumran the other night one of our machines was hit by spinters, from its own bomb. The effective machine-gun fire near the ground, in co-operation with our cavalry, has been the most remarkable development in the air. Our aeroplanes have become the terror of thieves, raiders, and irregular horse. It is impossible for them to get off with their loot in the morning. No nullahs are deep enough to hide them. Our machines, flying a few feet above ground, scour the whole desert, rake their hiding-places with machine-gun fire, scatter and pursue their cavalry, spreading panic among their horses, and round up the retiring convoys, while our cavalry follow up and bring back the spoil. Such was the result of an attempt to raid our camel transport at Sheikh Saad. Of course, an action of the kind would be impossible over the enemy's position, but on the line of communications it is most effective. Our flying men have discovered a short way with raiders. 1128
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